Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the School Resource Officers topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Parents and teachers press board over transparency after vote to return SROs
Summary
Multiple parents, a teacher and a law professor criticized the board’s March decision to return school resource officers (SROs), arguing the process lacked transparency and raising concerns about racial disparities, student trauma and potential immigration enforcement implications.
Several parents, a teacher and a law professor used the public-comment period at the May 1 Charlottesville City School Board meeting to press the board for transparency and community involvement after what attendees described as a March 27 vote to return school resource officers (SROs) to city schools.
"The school board voted 4 to 2 to put armed police officers back in Charlottesville City Schools," Natalie Aviles, who identified herself as a parent, told the board. Aviles said the vote happened without adequate public notice and urged a transparent, evidence-based process before SROs are placed back in schools.
Other parents echoed those concerns. "We were not informed that this vote was going to take place," said Nick Steiner, a parent, who criticized the administration’s safety record and said the board had not done what he called broad stakeholder engagement. Steiner said the administration appeared to be outsourcing safety to police at a projected cost he gave as roughly $500,000.
Alex Heintzman, another parent, asked who would hold officials to the guardrails the board had described and recounted an earlier incident he said involved an SRO and a four-year-old in restraints. "My concern for my child's safety is not ridiculous," he said.
Sarah Gottlieb, a parent and law professor, warned of the harms SROs can pose for vulnerable student groups and raised a local concern that SROs in the commonwealth have shared student names with ICE agents in other cases. "I would have told you and explained to you my firsthand experience seeing the trauma, the everlasting trauma that is inflicted on children when they are arrested at their schools," Gottlieb said.
Teacher Peter Davis asked that CSAs (child study assistants) be included in drafting the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that will define the SRO program. Multiple public speakers requested community engagement, clearer guardrails, and independent reviews of any MOU.
Board members did not vote on the SRO issue at the May 1 meeting; public commenters requested additional transparency and community participation as the board develops the SRO model over the summer.
